Obama again claimed the purpose of the sanctions was to block Iran from developing the means to make a nuclear weapon. “If the Iranian government continues its defiance, there should be no doubt that the United States and our partners will continue to impose increasing consequences.”

But the administration admits, along with everyone else, that Iran has no weapons program and has not made the decision to start one. And Iran has only defied the absurd demand the US has made in negotiations that Iran halt all uranium enrichment, even at low levels, as is their right.

After the failed talks in 2009 and 2010, wherein Obama ended up rejecting the very deal he demanded the Iranians accept, as Harvard professor Stephen Walt has written, the Iranian leadership “has good grounds for viewing Obama as inherently untrustworthy.” Former CIA analyst Paul Pillar has concurred, arguing that Iran has “ample reason” to believe, “ultimately the main Western interest is in regime change.”

This is the fifth set of sanctions leveled against Iran in the past year. By an executive order signed by Obama, it aims to prevent new “payment mechanisms for the purchase of Iranian oil to circumvent existing sanctions.”

Earlier in the week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admitted that, so far, the economic warfare on Iran has not altered the leadership’s position. Indeed, historically speaking, sanctions are very ineffective. Renowned international relations theorist Kenneth Waltz recently wrote in Foreign Affairs that “the current sanctions on Iran can be dropped,” since “they primarily harm ordinary Iranians, with little purpose.”

Defiance? What or who is being defied? Has Obama always been this psychotic, or has he just grown into the job.

MoT

In answer to your last sentence. Yes and yes.

ML3

Bloviating, Zionist sock puppet. Nice backbone.

mojo

Yesterday the pentagon chief Pannetta was saying that: "Is better for Assad to get the hell out and that US is not going to repeat its Iraq mistake”.

Perhaps is time for US militarism regime to get the hell out of the area and leave the problem of middle east and for its people solving it. US is at mistake again.., continuously and for last 60 years making mistakes afar mistakes calling it democracy. Pennetta.., with all that mistakes both socially and politically looks where it got you, you are supporting terrorism and barbarians for your interests, you are supporting feudalism of Saudi Arabia and UAE, you are supporting another from of barbarians in Africa just to get by.., and you want for the Syrian government and its president to go? It looks like that Hillary Clinton running out of option so she gets in his supporters from all over the place looking for justification of her again political mistakes. It looks like Obama is out of touch nor he is getting the message, you are THE mistake when American people voted for you.., you are THE falsified democracy presenting it by falsifying yourself as democrat. You as Bill Clinton just wanted to have another war under your name dividing nations by their religious using NATO the Europe militarism regime to your advantage. You people are the puppet of US Zionism working for Paul Wolfowitz and AIPAC.

MoT

It's deja-vu all over again.

mark

If it pleases Israel…. let there be war!

Bill Lee

Harsh?

Ha ha ha ha ha . . .

The world is laughing at the stupid trash of the US regime.

Myriad measures are developing to thwart the US sanctions, and as a consequence US influence on the global economy is eroding.